Stephen Colbert vs. Maurice Sendak
“Where the Wild Things Are” writer Maurice Sendak turns out to be the cranky Jewish grandfather fans of “The Colbert Report” wish they had.
The 83-year-old author has been featured the past two nights on the Comedy Central series, in an interview producers apparently liked so much they stretched it across multiple episodes. Shot at the artist’s home, the interview features Sendak being characteristically feisty and sharp-tongued, describing GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich as an “idiot,” and later calling his interviewer the same name. (“That is an interesting point of view,” Sendak at one point says, responding to a comment by Colbert, “but not interesting to me particularly.”)
Colbert’s questions touched briefly on the gay element of Sendak’s identity, but not on his Jewish background — at least not directly. Introducing Sendak’s latest book, “Bumble-Ardy,” Colbert at one point tells viewers, “I highly recommend the book — unless you are Jewish. You can’t read books about pork” — a reference to the pink pig on the cover. “Stick with ‘The Velveteen Rabbi.’ “
Watch Stephen Colbert’s interview with Maurice Sendak:
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
- 2
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 3
News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
- 4
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture Cardinals are Catholic not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
-
Fast Forward Halal restaurant opening in Congress is like ‘Muslim conquest of Jerusalem,’ says GOP congressman
-
Fast Forward Germany formally classifies far-right AfD party as extremist, in blow to Nazi-linked populist movement
-
Fast Forward Trump taps shock jock Sid Rosenberg and a Haredi newspaper publisher for Holocaust Memorial Council
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.